Electrical Installations, Vol. 3 of 4: Of Electric Light, Power, Traction and Industrial Electrical Machinery (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Electrical Installations, Vol. 3 of 4: Of Electric Light, Power, Traction and Industrial Electrical Machinery The electric accumulator was early invented, or rather discovered. Ritter, a German, first made a definite enunciation of the lead accumulator. It had been known that in an electric decomposition cell, when it had been used in the decomposition of an acid solution in water with platinum electrodes, that the electrodes had become charged, and would give back some current after being disconnected from the battery; and it was proved that the current was due to oxygen adhering to the anode, and hydrogen adhering to the cathode. These gases are, in fact, to some extent occluded in the electrodes when decomposition is going on. This, then, was the beginning of the accumulator. Ritter discovered that lead plates gave better results. M. Planté, a French chemist, made a thoroughly exhaustive research on the lead cell, and discovered that, by a process of charg ing, discharging, and reversal of the electrodes, plates forming the anode and cathode could be transformed - the anode into a porous peroxide of lead, and the cathode into porous, spongy, metallic lead, capable of receiving and giving out a charge of large quantity that is to say, Planté's plates were by his process made of large capacity for electrical energy. Planté discovered nearly all that is known about treating lead plates to form them into battery plates of large capacity. The plates must be pure lead without any alloy, and should be annealed in high pressure steam or hot air, then put into a solution of water with 5 per cent. Of commercial nitric acid. This bath should be kept hot, nearly boiling, and the plates cooked for twelve to sixteen hours in it. They are then to be allowed to dry naturally in the air, and are then put into the battery boxes, in groups of plates to form the anodes and cathodes, in a solution of sulphuric acid and water 1200 sp.g. Twaddle, and slowly charged and discharged. Long slow charging and discharging, with frequent reversals of current, gradually converts the lead, which has been rendered somewhat spongy by the acid bath, into a still more porous condition, and forms, on charging, a thick coating of lead oxides on the anode and a thick coating of spongy lead on the cathode. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.